6.  The applicant was born in 1974 and lives in Sulejówek.
7.  In April 2007 the applicant’s wife left the matrimonial home and moved to Zakopane with the couple’s son M., who was born on 1 July 2004.
8.  On 22 November 2007 the applicant lodged an application with the Zakopane District Court (Sąd Rejonowy) for the establishment of contact.
9.  On 7 February 2008 he withdrew the application in the light of the parties’ agreement to establish the contact arrangement by way of a friendly settlement. On the same date the Zakopane District Court discontinued the proceedings.
10.  On 4 July 2008 the applicant again requested that the Zakopane District Court regulate his contact with his child. On 22 August 2008 he asked the same court to issue an interim contact order in that regard.
11.  On 3 September 2008 the Zakopane District Court issued an interim contact order. It ruled that the applicant was allowed to visit the child at the mother’s home on the first and third Saturday of each month from 2 to 7 p.m. The applicant was also allowed to take the child outside his place of residence accompanied by his mother. The court noted that the applicant had encountered difficulties in having regular contact with his son and that he had not seen his child since July 2008. The court further observed that at the material time it had not been established whether the applicant could be granted access without the child’s mother’s presence.
12.  Meanwhile, on 29 August 2008 the applicant’s wife brought an action for separation before the Nowy Sącz Regional Court (Sąd Okręgowy) on the basis of the applicant being the party at fault. She requested that she be granted custody of her son and that the child have his place of residence with her. She also requested that the court hear evidence from nine witnesses.
13.  On 20 October 2008 the applicant filed for separation on the basis of his wife being the party at fault. He asked that the court hear evidence from twenty-two witnesses.
14.  On 21 October 2008 the case was transferred to the Siedlce Regional Court.
15.  On 23 February 2009 the applicant lodged a petition for divorce with the Siedlce Regional Court on the basis of his wife being the party at fault. He also requested that the court grant him custody of his son and rule that the child’s place of residence was to be with him. On the same date he asked the court to issue an interim order for contact for the duration of the divorce proceedings.
16.  The cases for separation and for divorce were subsequently joined and the first hearing was scheduled for 30 June 2009. At the request of the applicant’s wife, the hearing was adjourned until 25 August 2009. The court instructed the court’s guardian (kurator sądowy) to conduct a local assessment (wywiad środowiskowy) at the child’s place of residence.
17.  The first hearing in the divorce case was held by the Siedlce Regional Court on 25 August 2009. The court heard evidence from the parties.
18.  On the same date the Siedlce Regional Court issued an interim contact order pending the outcome of the divorce proceedings. The applicant was allowed to have contact with his son every second and fourth weekend of the month and every Wednesday, outside the child’s place of residence but in the presence of the child’s mother.
19.  Both the applicant and his wife lodged appeals against this decision.
20.  On 14 December 2009 the applicant requested that the court authorise him to contact his son by phone three times a week.
21.  On 29 December 2009 the Siedlce Regional Court issued an interim contact order and granted the applicant the right to two thirty-minute phone calls with his son per week. The phone calls were to take place every Wednesday and Friday, between 6.30 and 7 p.m.
22.  Meanwhile, on an unspecified date in 2009 the applicant’s wife moved to Warsaw and subsequently, in 2010, to Poznań.
23.  On 19 January 2010 the Siedlce Regional Court rejected the applicant’s wife’s appeal against the decision of 25 August 2009.
24. On 9 March 2010 the Lublin Court of Appeal (Sąd Apelacyjny) examined the applicant’s appeal against the same decision and decided to amend the interim contact order, allowing the applicant to have contact with his son without the presence of the mother.
25.  The hearing scheduled for 23 March 2010 was adjourned due to legitimate absence of the applicant’s wife’s lawyer.
26.  On 29 April 2010 the Siedlce Regional Court held a hearing in the divorce proceedings. The court heard one witness of the eight who had been called. The applicant withdrew his application regarding the taking of evidence from all but three witnesses.
27.  The hearing scheduled for 28 May 2010 was cancelled due to the absence of both the applicant’s wife and the witnesses.
28. On 8 July 2010 the Siedlce Regional Court held another hearing. It heard the witnesses and the parties. It also instructed the Poznań Family Consultation Centre (Rodzinny Ośrodek Diagnostyczno‑Konsultacyjny) to prepare an expert report as regards the family’s situation.
29.  Meanwhile, on 21 June 2010 the applicant requested that the interim contact order be varied. On 21 July 2010 the Siedlce Regional Court decided to grant the applicant contact every second and fourth weekend of the month from 10 a.m. on Saturday until 7 p.m. on Sunday outside the child’s home and without the mother’s presence. He was also authorised to spend one day with his son at Christmas and Easter, one week of the winter holidays and two weeks of the summer holidays.
30.  On 26 July, 12 August and 24 September 2010 the Siedlce Regional Court issued requests for the witnesses in the divorce proceedings to be heard under the courts cooperation scheme (pomoc sądowa) by the Łódź District Court, the Poznań District Court and the Wrocław District Court, respectively.
31.  On 27 January 2011, in reply to a letter urging it to submit the expert report, the Family Consultation Centre informed the Regional Court that, due to the high volume of cases, the report would only be prepared some time during the following five months. The Regional Court issued further requests for acceleration of the preparation of the report on 17 March and 7 June 2011. By letter of 15 July 2011 the Family Consultation Centre informed the court that the report could not be finalised due to the failure of the applicant’s wife to attend either an appointment scheduled for 15 May 2011, or further appointments that were scheduled for 29 June and 8 July 2011.
32.  On 8 August 2011 the Family Consultation Centre experts issued a report on the family’s situation for the purposes of the divorce proceedings. They recommended that the decision given in July 2010 should remain in force and should be respected. M. did not have any emotional problems in having contact with his father, but he was well aware that the mother reacted negatively to such contact and he wanted to obtain her approval. Both parties challenged the report’s conclusions.
33.  On 12 September 2011 the Siedlce Regional Court dismissed the applicant’s wife’s request for the interim access arrangements to be varied. Her appeal against this decision was dismissed by the Lublin Court of Appeal on 23 January 2012.
34.  On 10 March 2012, in response to applications from the parties, the Family Consultation Centre experts submitted a supplementary report on the family’s situation. Both parties challenged the supplementary report.
35. On 16 May 2012 the experts submitted their replies to further questions from the parties.
36. On 12 June 2012 the Siedlce Regional Court held a hearing. It decided to instruct the Siedlce Family Consultation Centre to prepare a new expert report.
37.  On 3 December 2012 the Siedlce Family Consultation Centre returned the case file to the Regional Court. It informed the court that it had not been possible to prepare the requested report due to applicant’s wife’s failure to attend the scheduled appointments.
38.  On 3 January 2013 the Siedlce Regional Court scheduled a hearing for 14 February 2013. At the applicant’s wife’s request the hearing was postponed until 26 March 2013.
39.  On 26 March 2013 the Siedlce Regional Court dissolved the applicant’s marriage. It found that both parties had been at fault in the breakdown of the marital relationship. It further held that full parental authority was to be exercised by the applicant’s former wife, whereas the parental rights of the applicant were to be limited. The child’s place of residence was to be with the mother. The court authorised the applicant to have contact with his son without the presence of his mother every second and fourth weekend of the month and to spend one day at Christmas and Easter, one week of the winter holidays and two weeks of the summer holidays with him. The applicant was also authorised to contact the child by phone every Thursday and Friday between 6.30 and 7.30 p.m.
40.  Both parties lodged appeals against the first-instance judgment.
41.  On 24 October 2013 the Lublin Court of Appeal dismissed the appeals.
42.  On 20 February 2009 the applicant applied to the Warsaw-Wola District Court for the imposition on his wife of a fine in the amount of 1,000 Polish zlotys (PLN) for failure to comply with the access arrangement of 3 September 2008 (see paragraph 11 above). He alleged that M.’s mother had repeatedly refused to comply with the access arrangement and had obstructed his contact with the child, in particular, by arranging the meetings in unsuitable places.
43.  On 28 April 2009 the Warsaw-Wola District Court imposed on the child’s mother a fine in the amount of PLN 500 for her failure to respect the decision of the Zakopane District Court of 3 September 2008.
44.  On 7 August 2010 the applicant notified the police that the child’s mother had refused to open the door when he had come to visit his son.
45.  On 2 September 2010 the Warsaw-Wola District Court discontinued the enforcement proceedings concerning the decision of 3 September 2008 in the light of subsequent decisions regulating the applicant’s contact with his son pending the outcome of the divorce proceedings (see paragraphs 18, 24 and 29 above).
46.  On 30 December 2010 the applicant requested that the Poznań-Nowe Miasto and Wilda District Court assist him in the effective enforcement of the interim contact order of 21 July 2010 issued by the Siedlce Regional Court. He asked the court to impose on the child’s mother a fine in the amount of PLN 10,000 due to her failure to comply with this order. He also requested that the court impose a fine in the same amount for the mother’s failure to comply with the decision of 29 December 2009 of the Siedlce Regional Court setting out his right to contact his son by phone. He submitted that the child’s mother had repeatedly failed to respect his access rights and had obstructed his contact with his son.
47.  On 21 February 2011 the court returned the applicant’s application as regards the enforcement of the decision of 29 December 2009.
48.  On 23 May 2011 the applicant resubmitted his application in this regard.
49.  The proceedings were joined on 16 June 2011.
50.  Meanwhile, at the applicant’s request, the hearing scheduled for 19 May 2011 was postponed until 24 May 2011. Neither of the parties attended the hearing. The applicant submitted that he had not attended this hearing because he had been informed of his wife’s intended absence.
51.  The parties filed their written submissions on 30 June 2011.
52.  The Government submitted that the hearing scheduled for 6 September 2011 had been postponed until 20 October 2011 at the applicant’s request. The applicant submitted that the hearing had taken place on that date and that he had been present.
53.  Due to the applicant’s absence, the hearing scheduled for 20 October 2011 was postponed until 1 December 2011.
54.  On 6 December 2011 the Poznań-Nowe Miasto and Wilda District Court gave a decision. The court set a fourteen-day time-limit for the mother to allow the applicant access to M. on the terms set out by the interim order of 21 July 2010 on pain of a fine in the amount of PLN 1,000. It further held that she was to observe the same time-limit in respect of the decision concerning telephone contact on pain of a fine of PLN 500.
The court had no doubt that M.’s mother had failed to respect the access arrangements as regards the applicant’s personal contact with M. The weekend visits had almost never taken place in accordance with the access arrangement. The applicant’s wife had enrolled M. in fencing classes and had organised other activities for him on Saturdays, when the applicant was due to pick up the child, meaning that the applicant had been unable to collect his son and spend time with him alone. At the same time the court noted that the applicant had failed to visit his son regularly on Saturdays. However, the child’s mother had also not respected the applicant’s rights as regards spending parts of Christmas, Easter and summer holidays with M.
The court also found that M.’s mother had failed to respect the court’s decision concerning the telephone contact between the applicant and his son. The court established that the applicant had only rarely been able to contact M. by phone.
55.  On 12 March 2012 the Poznań Regional Court dismissed the applicant’s wife’s appeal against this decision.
56.  On 29 March 2013 the Poznań-Nowe Miasto and Wilda District Court discontinued the enforcement proceedings regarding the decision of 21 July 2010 due to the applicant’s inactivity in the proceedings.
57.  Meanwhile, on 8 February 2012 the applicant lodged a further request for enforcement of his contact rights as set out in the decision of 21 July 2010 under the amended provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure (see paragraph 66 below). The hearing in those proceedings was scheduled for 24 September 2013. On 9 January 2015 the Poznań Regional Court discontinued the proceedings as the applicant’s contact rights had meanwhile been regulated in the final divorce judgment (see paragraphs 39 and 41 above). No further information about the course of the proceedings concerning this latest request has been submitted by the parties.
58.  On 5 October 2011 the applicant lodged a complaint with the Lublin Court of Appeal under the Law of 17 June 2004 on a complaint about a breach of the right to have a case examined in an investigation conducted or supervised by a prosecutor and in judicial proceedings without undue delay (ustawa o skardze na naruszenie prawa strony do rozpoznania sprawy w postępowaniu przygotowawczym prowadzonym lub nadzorowanym przez prokuratora i postępowaniu sądowym bez nieuzasadnionej zwłoki – “the 2004 Act”). He submitted, in particular, that the last hearing in the divorce proceedings had been held in July 2010 and that the court had been powerless in the face of his wife’s efforts to protract and obstruct the proceedings.
59.  On 9 November 2011 the Lublin Court of Appeal dismissed the applicant’s complaint. It acknowledged that the proceedings had been ongoing since August 2008, but was of the view that their length had essentially been caused by the parties’ attitude, while the court could be held responsible only for its own conduct. Both parties had repeatedly submitted numerous pleadings and applications which the court had been obliged to examine. No delays on the part of the court in examining these applications had been established. The parties had appealed against various interlocutory decisions on six occasions. Furthermore, as a result of the attitude of both parties, the issue of access to the child had become the main problem in the case. This had further protracted the proceedings.